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"Responsible, committed, honest leadership is rare in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, good leadership establishes good governance in the many parts of the developing world (like most of Africa) that do not yet possess fully formed functional political institutions. In too many countries the persons (nearly all men) who preside largely run the show and brush democratic procedures and pieties aside." writes Robert Rotberg. read more

About the Africa Program

Consistent with its mission to promote dialogue on Africa policy and African issues between the scholarly and policy making communities, the Africa Program hosts public meetings, conferences, and forums featuring heads of states and other leaders from Africa, as well as American, European, and African experts. The African focus is on current conflict zones, such as Sudan, the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Niger Delta of Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire and Kenya, and on overarching policy issues such as trade, governance, the development of the state capacity, information and communications technology, development, drug trafficking and regional economic integration.more

On March 24, the DC Environmental Film Festival comes to the Wilson Center for the Washington, DC, premieres of two new short documentaries from ECSP, “Broken Landscape” and “Paving the Way.” Filmmaker and ECSP Multimedia Producer Sean Peoples will describe his journey from the eroded gullies of Ethiopia to the rat-hole mines of northeastern India during a panel discussion led by the Wilson Center’s Roger-Mark De Souza, with observations from Sierra Club's Kim Lovell and World Resources Institute's Ferzina Banaji. more

When Belgium relinquished control of the Belgian Congo in June 1960, a charismatic Patrice Lumumba became prime minister of the new Republic. Stability immediately broke down. The army mutinied, while Katanga Province seceded. Six months later Lumumba was murdered in Katanga; his undisputed rule as Congo’s first democratically elected leader had lasted ten weeks. Over fifty years later, the circumstances and symbolism of Lumumba’s assassination still troubled people around the world. Bruce Kuklick examines this defining event in postcolonial Africa. He reveals a tangled international political history in which many people—black and white, well-meaning and ruthless, African, European, and American—bear responsibility for the untimely death of a national dream. more

On March 2, 2015, the Wilson Center Africa Program, in partnership with the African Union Mission, hosted a private roundtable discussion on the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA). The discussion featured H.E. Mrs. Fatima Haram Acyl, Commissioner for Trade and Industry with the African Union, as well as representatives from several Congressional offices from both parties. Commissioner Acyl was joined by the African Union Ambassador to the United States, H.E. Amina Ali and additional representatives from the African Union. Dr. Monde Muyangwa, Director of the Africa Program, facilitated the discussion. more

"Responsible, committed, honest leadership is rare in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, good leadership establishes good governance in the many parts of the developing world (like most of Africa) that do not yet possess fully formed functional political institutions. In too many countries the persons (nearly all men) who preside largely run the show and brush democratic procedures and pieties aside." writes Robert Rotberg. more